


The Missing Shoe, The Hidden Galleon, and The Mirror of Erised

by Frumpologist



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Canon Compliant, Enemies to Friends, F/M, Friendship, Hogwarts, Post-War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-15
Updated: 2018-06-15
Packaged: 2019-05-23 16:44:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,267
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14938080
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Frumpologist/pseuds/Frumpologist
Summary: Luna Lovegood returns to Hogwarts at the request of Headmistress McGonagall. The Giant Squid is ill and causing a ruckus in the Black Lake. Luna returns to find that Hogwarts is exactly as she left it, including her missing shoe, a hidden galleon, and the Mirror of Erised.





	The Missing Shoe, The Hidden Galleon, and The Mirror of Erised

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Angel207](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Angel207/gifts).



**1 June 2013** **  
**   
Hogwarts stands against the rolling hills of Scotland just as it had during her school years. A few things changed; bigger Quidditch hoops, the bricks in the courtyard mismatched like patchwork, fewer trees in the Forbidden Forest, and the Black Lake’s shoreline is receding. It still feels like home, though. She suspects that it always will.    
  
The headmistress meets her at the gate and lowers the protective wards. Luna watches the magic sizzle and melt away with a small smile on her face. She’s always been fascinated with the colors of magic and somehow Hogwarts’ wards were always blue. Even the Headmistress’s flair can’t change that. Growing up pureblooded did nothing to sway the way that Luna still fawns over the little intricacies of wand work. She supposes that she gets it from her mother and she smiles because her mother gave her so many things before she died.    
  
“Miss Lovegood, it’s a pleasure to see you again.” Headmistress McGonagall wraps Luna in a tight embrace and then shakes her shoulders with an affectionate smile as she steps away. “Or, should I call you Mrs. Scamander now?”    
  
“Oh, I won’t change my name,” Luna tells her with a shake of her head. “Rolf is a Scamander and it’s very nice for him, but I am very much a Lovegood and will always be so.”    
  
McGonagall peers at Luna over horn-rimmed glasses and offers her a strict, tight-lipped smile. “My late husband Elphinstone didn’t very well like that I refused his surname, either.”    
  
Luna grins. “Urquart is a deeply Scottish surname, isn’t it? They have a history with dragons and dealing in ivy.”    
  
The elderly headmistress doesn’t appear shocked but her tone is breathless, as if she hasn’t thought about the name for a very long time and is pleased to finally have the chance. “Elphie often boasted of his familial gift in herbology, but the silly sod lived Upon the Rowan Wood. His name literally translates to living among corpses of rowan trees.”   
  
“I met a Urquart once in the Highlands,” Luna says and then she places her hand on the headmistresses’ forearm and smiles at her kindly. “She runs a dragon rescue at their family castle and donates the profits from her herbs to Neville’s research into Tentacula bites.”    
  
If the headmistress is moved at all to hear that her late husband’s memory is honored through his family, she doesn’t let it show. Instead, she straightens her shoulders and wraps her tartan robes firmly about her middle and nods in the direction of the Black Lake.    
  
“Speaking of tentacles.” The headmistress begins walking and Luna hustles to remain at her side. “Architeuthis has been thrashing about and causing quite the stir with the grindylows and merfolk. Twice, the Merking has threatened to have a feast with its flesh.”    
  
Luna doesn’t betray the roil in her stomach. Archie is an institution at the school and she simply can’t allow the merfolk to eat her. After a short walk, they are standing at the bank of the Black Lake and sure enough, the Giant Squid is thrashing about with its tentacles whipping through the air. A couple of grindylows hang on to the suctions of the tentacles and Luna can almost see the fear in their little black eyes as they wave around out of the water.   
  
“Headmistress, have you fed her crup skins?”    
  
“Hagrid assured me – ”    
  
Luna shakes her head. Hagrid means well, she knows, but he’s more of an old soul and not one to read the latest findings from renowned magizoologists. If he’d read Newt’s latest book, Hagrid would know that the diet of the Giant Squid relies heavily on protein.    
  
“Archie prefers protein. Carbs make her angsty.”    
  
“Archie?” The side eye from the headmistress doesn’t escape Luna’s notice. “Very well. The elves in the kitchens can whip up something suitable for Architeuthis per your instruction, Miss Lovegood.”    
  
Luna takes her leave from the Headmistress and waltzes toward the familiar double doors leading into the castle. She once fancied the doors as guardians to another world and she would knock three times in a particular pattern to gain entry to its majesty. Now, however, Luna believes the magic of the doors is drained from so much battering during The War and instead of knocking as she used to do, she pushes the doors open with a sad smile on her face.    
  
Walking through Hogwarts is the same as it always was; moving staircases, chatty portraits, and a menacing poltergeist, who Luna is convinced just needs a friend. She tried to befriend him once during her first year and discovered that Peeves is a fan of applesauce, especially once he learned that applesauce is the ectoplasm of apples.    
  
Luna believes that it really is all about how you present things.    
  
Of course, throughout the course of her first year, Peeves covered unsuspecting students in applesauce once an hour for three months. Only the Baron was able to scare him off. She hadn’t talked to Peeves since.    
  
Just as Peeves flies overhead, Luna’s big, blue eyes are drawn upward to the old, wooden beams that rest against the high arches of the ceiling. Not long ago, her shoes dangled from that very plank; a practical joke played by her schoolmates. But, there are good memories attached to those shoes, too. She smiles as she imagines them hanging there, laces tied together, and a sardonic, petulant voice approaching her from behind.    
  
**1 June 1995 – Third Year** **  
**   
Hogwarts is aflutter with two foreign schools preparing to leave Scotland after the Tri-Wizard Tournament. Girls are fawning over the handsome Bulgarians, boys are falling over their awkward feet around the French. Luna watches it all unfold from behind her June Issue of The Quibbler where there is a fascinating article on the Hidden Uses for Devil’s Snare. She never considered using it for a tourniquet but resolves to add it to her emergency travel bag once she finds the school’s stock.    
  
She’s been sitting in the small nook across from the courtyard for hours. Wand behind her ear, dungarees only half snapped, and missing both of her shoes, she’s the picture of pure contentment as she folds the paper over her lap and smiles at the other students as they hug each other.    
  
“Is she missing a shoe?”    
  
“That’s just Loony Lovegood. She’s missing a lot more than a shoe.”    
  
“Shhh, Pansy, she’s not deaf you know.”    
  
“It doesn’t matter. Criticism just bounces right off her.”    
  
“Oi, Lovegood!” Luna finally glances at the girls walking down the corridor and smiles at them. “The bottoms of your socks are filthy. Why are you walking around the school with no shoes on?”    
  
The girls snort into their hands and bump shoulders as they speed walk away from her.  It’s nothing she’s unused to dealing with; her classmates are narrow minded and fairly uniform, especially those Slytherin girls. Luna glances at the bottoms of her feet and wiggles her toes. It’s not like she’s got dirt caked against her skin. Even then, she’s not sure she’d care.    
  
As she watches the girls round the corner, Luna sets her paper aside and pushes herself to stand on the hard ground. She glances left and then right, wondering where she might find her shoes. As she takes off toward the staircase leading to the entrance hall a slightly taller, blonde figure joins her side. His face is pinched in an arrogant way. His posture is rigid and stern just like everyone else of his family name.    
  
“Draco, why aren’t you saying goodbye to Viktor Krum and his friends?” Luna asks kindly without breaking her stride. Every once in a while, she glances into dark corners and in supply cupboards to see if maybe her shoes are hiding there.    
  
“Nobody cares about Krum.” His tone is severe for such a young bloke, like he wasn’t really a child and never had a chance to try.    
  
“Okay. Well, Pansy and her friends went that way.”  Luna points down the corridor and continues checking random places for her shoes. No luck.    
  
“Lovegood.” Draco pauses and waits for Luna to turn her attention to him. It takes several beats and then she’s holding his grey gaze with her wide, unassuming eyes. “Where the hell are your shoes?”    
  
She shrugs. “The others like to steal them while I’m sleeping or reading. It entertains them to watch me search for them.”    
  
Luna nods her head to the side where a group of Ravenclaws are watching discreetly from the side. She’s known about the prank for ages, ever since first year. Most of the time she goes home on holiday without shoes and when she comes back they’re on her bed. House elves are fantastic and loyal.    
  
“Your housemates steal your shoes?” Draco’s neck turns but he seems to be trying to hide that he’s helping her look for the shoes.    
  
“It’s their fun, I suppose.” She continues walking and he stays right in her stride. “I was surprised, too, when I found out it wasn’t the Slytherins. You’re very mean to everyone.”    
  
To his credit, Draco tries not to smile. A rumble of his chest belies his amusement. “Honestly, Lovegood, you’re a pureblood. You should have more sense than this.”    
  
“Honestly, Draco,” she says without missing a beat, “you’re a pureblood. You should know that people aren’t always their best selves when surrounded by others.”    
  
He doesn’t talk much anymore as they stroll through the castle. He still pretends he’s not helping her and Luna checks every nook and cranny she can see. Once or twice, she steps on something sharp and she tries not to wince but her feet are sensitive and she can’t help it. Draco rolls his eyes and stops her from going anything further.    
  
“You’re sullying the name of purebloods when you walk around like a druid. It’s ridiculous.” He says with a click of his tongue. “Don’t you bring a second pair of shoes with you?”   
  
“Of course not. One pair of shoes is enough for anyone.” She points up to the beams over their heads and nudges Draco with her elbow. “Besides, they always come back in the end.”    
  
“Leviosa.” Draco swishes and flicks his wand at the ratty pair of shoes hanging from the ceiling and floats them down to Luna’s outstretched hand. “You should find better friends, Lovegood.”    
  
“Do you want to be my friend, Draco?” She balances the shoes over her hand and makes no effort to put the shoes on her feet, which seems to irritate Draco.    
  
“We can’t be friends. You hang around with the wrong sort.” Draco walks away from her but she hopes that he hears her call out to him anyway.    
  
“You’re not a bad person, Draco.”    
  
Draco huffs as he rounds the corner.    
  
  
**1 June 2013** **  
**   
He was sassier all those years ago, but then she was more naïve then, too. It never ceases to amaze her that they met all those years ago over a pair of scuffed and dirty shoes. And she thinks, perhaps, she’s the first person who ever knew Draco Malfoy as a kind and considerate boy. The image in her head of the mangy shoes faded away and she smiles remembering the boy she once knew and how much he’s changed. She keeps walking to the kitchens in search of the pear she’d tickle to gain entrance. The house elves are always so accommodating that it doesn’t take her long to find one to fry up the crup skins to feed to Archie. They bow low before her and their toothy grins never disappear as they whip around the kitchens.    
  
In no time at all, she’s thrust from the kitchens by the elves who are begging her to return any time she needs something from them. She’s walking through Hogwarts again and the corridors are so empty when school is out for the summer. She steps on a set of stairs just as they begin to rotate. The staircases are constantly changing and before she knows it, Luna is on the seventh floor near the tapestry of Barnabus the Barmy. Sometimes she wonders if the staircases play pranks on the wizards at the school because all she needs to do is find the double doors again and now she’s so far away.    
  
Luna turns to find another staircase and then she turns back again. It isn’t until she’s walking in front of Barnabus for the third time that she realizes she’s near the Room of Requirement. She stops suddenly and stares at the blank wall. It’s entirely destroyed by Fiendfyre, of course, but she remembers all of the important things she learned in that room and a great fondness seeps into her chest. She’s smiling before she can stop herself as she places her hand against the concrete and sighs.    
  
**11 November through 01 June 1996 – Fourth Year** **  
**   
Scurrying through the castle with her fellow Ravenclaws, Luna practices wand movements and footwork along the way. She is left behind as they quicken their pace so as not to be caught by the evil clutches of Professor Umbridge. Luna isn’t too worried about being caught. It’s not a crime to be out in the castle at this time and it’s still dinner time so most students are wandering around. And, she tends to be invisible for some reason so she’s not very concerned with anyone finding out her secrets.    
  
“Lovegood,” the familiar drawl issues sharply. “Why are you dancing down the corridor? Where are you off to?”    
  
“Oh, hello Draco,” she greets him vaguely, still mid-twirl and mid-swish with her wand. “I’m practicing enchantments to ward off dark creatures.”    
  
“Dark creatures? At Hogwarts?” He doesn’t sound worried, the scoff was too sarcastic for that. “You aren’t part of Scarhead’s group of rejects, are you?”    
  
“Oh no, is that what they’re calling Harry these days?” Luna stops moving and turns to face a much taller, older looking Draco. He’s paler now than he was last year and his face is less pinched. He’s matured and he wears his responsibilities like a mask.    
  
“You haven’t answered my question. Are you part of his secret club to take down the Ministry?” He’s closer to her now and he’s very tall and he smells like expensive cologne.    
  
“Secret clubs are forbidden according to Decree Number Twenty-Four,” she informs him confidently with a bat of her eyelashes. She’s not fool enough to tell on Harry; they’ve only just begun Dumbledore’s Army.    
  
“If you are part of his club, you’ll be expelled.” Draco is glaring at her down his nose, thin-lipped and disapproving. “And why would you want to be expelled for those freaks?”    
  
Luna shakes her head and places her hand on the crook of his elbow. “Do you want to be part of a secret club, Draco?”    
  
Draco scoffs, pulls his arm out from her grasp, and paces away from her without looking back.    
  
It’s several weeks before she sees Draco again on her way to a Dumbledore’s Army meeting. He’s standing in an alcove and grabs her arm as she walks past, pulling her into the darkness. Her wand is immediately in her hand and the tip is lit before he can even begin to question her. The blue glow against his face creates a sickeningly green color and it’s worrying to think that Draco is getting more stressed out as the days pass. Luna tilts her head at him and offers him a wispy smile.    
  
“Are you ill?” She asks him bluntly and leans towards him slightly.    
  
“Ill? What? No.” Draco swats away her wand and glances out into the corridor to make sure they’re alone. “Tell me what you’re up to with Potter and his misfits.”    
  
“I-“   
  
“Don’t lie to me. We all know you’re all up to something and Umbridge has made it clear that we’re allowed to jinx you if we catch you out at night.”    
  
“You’re out at night,” she tells him with a raised, pale eyebrow.    
  
“I’m allowed to be out at night. Special permission from the Professor.” Draco’s smugness makes his face appear fuller, less gaunt.    
  
“Is that because you’re in with the right sort, or the wrong sort?” Luna feels her galleon heating up against her thigh and chews on her lip. Draco didn’t answer her. “Goodbye for now, Draco.”    
  
The next time that Luna and Draco meet before one of her DA meetings, he is paler still and rigid like a plank of wood. He’s not sleeping if the dark circles under his eyes are anything to go by and she doesn’t think he’s eating properly, either. She’s practicing stances as she moves through the corridor, weaving in and out behind statues and suits of armor. He grabs her by the arm again and it’s the second time she’s been taken off guard by his hiding in the shadows.    
  
It should scare her more than it does, but Draco is harmless, really.    
  
“You can’t go to Potter tonight.” He’s serious, bearing down on her and speaking sharply.    
  
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she tells him vaguely and doesn’t bother to light the tip of her wand. It seems more dangerous these days, like the halls are becoming the worst place to be caught by anyone who isn’t part of Dumbledore’s Army.    
  
“Stop trying to be clever,” he hisses and she laughs loudly.    
  
“I’m a Ravenclaw, Draco. We’re built for cleverness.”    
  
“Lovegood, I’m warning you that you’re going to be hurt or expelled if you continue with these secret meetings. Why won’t you listen to me?” Draco has a hold of her bicep, loosely curling his fingers around her.    
  
“You’re not going to let that happen.” She shakes her head at him as if she knows something he doesn’t.   
  
“Why wouldn’t I?” His brows are pinched together like he thinks she’s lost her mind.    
  
“Because we’re friends, of course.” And then she skips away from him as if he hadn’t tried to warn her of anything at all.    
  
He shouts after her, the words bouncing through the corridor in her wake, “We’re not friends, Lovegood!”    
  
Later that night, however, tells a different story. As Potter is carted off by Professor Umbridge to the Headmaster’s office, Draco and his fellow Inquisitorial Squad mates are holding the other members of the DA in Umbridge’s office. They are passing out detentions and docking house points – hundreds away from every house since none are Slytherin. Luna just smiles as everyone argues and her eyes catch Draco’s. He’s scowling at her for only a moment before he orders his classmates and the other members of the DA to their dormitories.    
  
As Luna traipses back to Ravenclaw Tower, she hears a ‘psst’ behind her and spins with her wand extended. Draco’s face peers out of a dark alcove and he beckons her with a crook of his finger. She doesn’t think twice about being discovered and reprimanded by Draco, just turns to him and walks over to join him in the alcove.    
  
“You tried to warn me that Umbridge knew,” she tells him matter-of-factly.    
  
“I did.” He ducks his chin in a nod. “You went anyway.”    
  
“I did.” She nods as well. “You didn’t take house points from me.”    
  
“No.” He appears conflicted; his eyes are soft but his lips are a thin line. “You didn’t run when we came.”    
  
“No.” And her smile splits into a wide grin.    
  
“You’re really, very strange, Lovegood.” He almost looks defeated in her presence. The corners of his lips twitch.    
  
“I have something for you,” she tells him as she palms a warm galleon from her pocket. She takes Draco’s hand, ignoring his flinch, and drops it gently onto his palm. “There are bad things coming. I made a spare galleon with a protean charm and I can tell you when it’s time to hide from those dark things that are chasing you.”    
  
“The dark creatures you’re learning to defend yourself against?” He closes his palm around the galleon and lifts an eyebrow.    
  
“Yes.” She nods once. Serious.    
  
“I can’t escape them.” He’s honest and he’s direct and he tries to give the coin back but she won’t take it. “You’re mad, Lovegood. Loony, even. I could be killed for this. Do you understand that?”    
  
Luna’s smile is smaller now as she closes her hand around his. “I’ll leave it for you, then. In this alcove, in this loose bit of cement. And you can check it from time to time. If it’s burning hot, run to the Room of Requirement and hide. I’ll find you when it’s safe again.”    
  
“You’re absolutely mad, you are.” But he watches where she stows the coin and when he leaves her in the darkness alone, he makes sure to tell her that the coast is clear.    
  
**01 June 2013** **  
**   
She’s holding the galleon in her hand and turning it over. The magic isn’t gone but the coin is cold. She’d heard the stories of Draco’s escape from the Room of Requirement, she knows that he used the coin to try and hide, and at the end of it all he was safe. Only just.    
  
Luna pockets the coin and pushed the small bit of wall back into its resting place before she turns from the seventh floor corridor and makes her way down the staircases and through the entrance doors. It’s far less of a trek when the stairs aren’t constantly shifting and she’s at the Headmistress’s side again at the Black Lake. The Giant Squid is still thrashing. Merfolk are pumping their trident-clad fists at the beast and screeching above water. It’s all very loud and manic until Luna leviosa’s the fried crup skins to Archie.    
  
One of Archie’s tentacles flies through the air and captures the small flaps of protein and directs them to her mouth. It takes several beats before the grindylows drop back into the water and the merfolk settle their piercing voices and threatening trident-waving. McGonagall sighs in relief as the creatures of the Black Lake disappear below the surface with little more than splashy bubbles and ripples that crash upon the small shore.    
  
“Miss Lovegood, however will I thank you for the service you’ve done the school today?” The Headmistress smiles, a true, grateful thing that reaches her cat-like eyes. “Perhaps an award? Or, perhaps, you’ll reconsider my offer for the post of Care of Magical Creatures?”    
  
Luna continues to throw float the crup skins into the water until her hands are free and then she offers the professor a wide smile. “Minerva, I don’t want to show wizards about things that they know already exist. Unicorns and dragons and bowtruckles. I want to make the aware of the crumple-horned snorkack and the veiled wraith and things they’d have to see in the wild.”    
  
The headmistress’s judgmental side-eye is back, though her lips are less thin and more amused than before. “Very well, my dear. What can I do for you in exchange for your services today?”    
  
She doesn’t want to be cheeky, but of all the things she revisited in the school today, there is one item she hasn’t seen in fifteen years. “Can you take me to the Mirror of Erised, professor? I’d very much like to see the state of my robes after Archie’s sloppy feeding.”    
  
“That can certainly be arranged, dear.” Minerva doesn’t question her motivations and instead leads Luna into the castle once again.    
  
**21 February 1997 – Fifth Year** **  
**   
The stone floor of the castle is cold against her bare feet as Luna scurries from Ravenclaw Tower to the hospital wing. It’s been a long year already and she’s worried for everyone’s safety. Mostly, she wants to check on Draco who is still recovering in the infirmary after the terrible accident with Harry. He isn’t happy to see her there and scowls at her approach.    
  
“You need to stay away from me,” he tells her as she sits in the chair opposite his face. “I can’t be socializing with you or your lot and I have a very important task to accomplish. You’re getting in the way.”    
  
“You’re dying in the infirmary, Draco,” Luna reminds him with a vague wave her hand. “Besides, you need someone to remind you that you’re a good person.”    
  
“Stop saying things like that to me,” he spits and the anger on his face pinches those greying features once again. “You don’t know anything about me.”   
  
She smiles that frustratingly whimsical smile and puts her hand on top of his. “I know that you’re a Slytherin and I know that you’re a Malfoy. I know that you think you’re doing the right thing but I also know that you’re scared that you’re doing the wrong thing.”   
  
“You’re trying to make me someone I’m not.” His voice is quiet and he turns his face away from her. “I’m doing what needs to be done, because he will kill me and my family if I don’t do what he says.”    
  
“I know that you think no one will understand,” Luna whispers to him. “But I also know that you’re desperate enough to confess to Myrtle you’re plan to kill Albus Dumbledore.”    
He snorts and chokes on air and he rips his hand away from hers with such force that he almost falls off the other side of his cot.    
  
“Shut up!” His voice is a low hiss and his eyes are deadly and dark.    
  
The frightened boy is staring at her but she knows it’s just a mask. It has to be just a mask because she’s wearing one too – bravery like a Gryffindor and she’s sure that it will slip at any moment, but she grabs his hand again anyways and she doesn’t shut up, not if she can save him.    
  
“Come with me,” she asks him as she yanks on his hand and stands from her chair. “I want to show you something, but you have to come now while everyone is asleep.”    
  
“I’m bloody dying, Lovegood.” His eyes roll. “I can’t leave or Madam Pomphrey will kill me anyway.”    
  
“You’re very dramatic.” She yanks on him again until he has no choice but to stand. “It won’t take longer than a quarter hour, Draco. You need to see this.”    
  
He doesn’t ask any questions as he moves beside her. Luna chooses not to mention how painfully normal he looks in an off-white gown that doesn’t cover his calves and hangs off his thinning body as if it’s made for someone double his size. They hustle through the quiet corridors, ignoring the complaints of the portraits as they climb a single staircase and enter through a locked door.    
  
“If you wanted to get me alone so we could snog, all you had to do was say so.” Draco’s mask is fixed again and he’s covering his vulnerability with a smug smirk.    
  
“There’s no time to snog.” Luna laughs as if he tells the funniest joke in the world. She cuts it off abruptly and she shoves Draco forward into the room.    
  
It’s empty except for a very large, ornate mirror that is easily a hundred years old. There are cobwebs in the corners of it and thick dust along the arches of the frame. The glass is cracked in one spot and has scuffs and scratches everywhere except the very center. But the blue magic that enchants it still sizzles quietly when Draco approaches it. He mumbles the inscription on the mirror to himself, “Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi.”   
  
She’s next to him and her hand is in his and she’s beaming at him as if proud of what she’s shown him. He only looks confused as he peruses what he sees in the reflection.    
  
“Can you see what I’m seeing?” He asks her quietly as his hand reaches out and touches the cool surface of the mirror. He shakes his head as if clearing his thoughts.    
  
“What do you see, Draco?” Her eyes scan the reflection and she can’t stop grinning at it. Everything inside of it is so perfect, so very much what she wants to be true.    
  
He shakes his head, unable to speak.    
  
“I see myself and my friends and there are creatures everywhere as far as my eye can see.” She touches the mirror’s surface carefully and with an unmasked awe on her face. “You’re there, too, in the middle of it all, and you’re smiling.”    
  
He scoffs.    
  
“What do you see, Draco?”    
  
His hand is tightly curled in hers and he moves uncomfortably from foot to foot. Luna thinks he’s trying to prove the mirror wrong or find a hole in what it’s showing him and he’s sighing and huffing and even manages to curse before he drops her hand and faces her. He’s upset, shaking, and yet there’s a little sliver of hope in his eyes that lighten them from the darker grey they were in the hospital wing.    
  
“The mirror doesn’t show the truth,” he finally says. “I’ll never be that happy.”    
  
Luna places her hand on his chin and she maneuvers his gaze back to the mirror. “You have to give yourself permission to be happy, Draco. It’s what people who have traumatic pasts have to do to move on.”    
  
He pulls away from Luna and he closes his eyes before turning away. “I’ll never be that happy.”    
  
Draco’s gone from the room before Luna can tear her eyes away from her reflection.    
  
**01 June 2013** **  
**   
The Headmistress unlocks the door and then leaves Luna alone to face the Mirror. She’s nervous, but it’s an excited, bouncing type of energy that roils in the pit of her stomach and forces her to step forward. The last time Luna was in the room, she saw everything that she has now. What more could she possibly want or need from life that she didn’t already have before?    
  
Luna steps to the mirror and her eyes are closed as she feels for its magic. It’s still there, still quietly crackling on a low frequency that she’s sure is blue like the rest of the castle. Her hands are balled into fists until she finally unclenches them and stands toe to toe with the ornate framed mirror.    
  
When her eyes open she’s staring at herself. Blond hair all feathery around her face. Large, blue eyes taking in everything from the cracks of the mirror to the things she expects to see surrounding her. Her robes are cerulean like her favorite color sky to explore under, and she’s older now than the last time she saw her reflection here.    
  
Nothing happens for several minutes. She’s breathing softly against the mirror’s surface, fogging up a small circle in steady breaths. There’s nothing except the sound of her breathing and the old creaks of a castle to keep her company.    
  
Not until she glances over her reflection’s shoulder and he’s there in the doorway. His slightly longer platinum hair hangs past his chin and his face has a five o’clock shadow that wasn’t there when they were teens. He still walks with confidence, perfect posture, and the smallest hint of a smile tugging at one side of his lips.    
  
He’s there, and he’s still able to conjure a smile after everything he’s been through. She wonders what he’d see now, if he’d allow himself happiness after all these years of punishment.    
  
“The mirror doesn’t show the truth,” she whispers and smiles at Draco in the mirror. “It shows only what your heart desires.” 

**Author's Note:**

> This story was written for the SAYS Reunion Fic Exchange for my AMAZEBALLS friend, Angel207. I adore you and I adore the prompts you gave! <3


End file.
